Magic Mountain

Part of my birthday fun this year was a trip to Magic Mountain! It was a special Fire/Police event where the park was only open from 6pm - midnight for those who had a wristband. This meant NO LINES!!! It was amazing! I haven't been in 16 years and there were so many new and exciting rides. And to not have to stand in lines for hours was great! We had 2 other couples with us (yeah.. no kids!!!) and we had a blast! What a fun date night. Can't wait for next year!

Swim Lessons

Allison was so excited to start her first swim lessons this year. That is, until she got there and realized what was actually going to occur! The enthusiasm ended there.


We started like this... barely putting her mouth in the water to blow bubbles.. and not wanting to get her eyes wet AT ALL!



And after two weeks we were at this!! Swimming a few feet on her own! And she's getting better every day! Yay for awesome teachers who didn't cave in to her initial wimpers and whines!! (Miss Bonnie Jones)

Allison's Candyland Birthday!

Many of you have been asking me for photos of Allison's birthday party. For those who don't know, I planned for months for Alli's Candyland party. I basically turned my backyard into a live version of the Candyland board game. Unfortunately, I don't have the best pictures from the day to show all that we did. I was too busy with 15 3 and 4 year olds to man the camera. So Jason was in charge of the camera and didn't take as many as I would have liked, or the kind I would like. Oh well. Here are a few of what we have:

This is where the game board begins. It's Plumpy's Gingerbread Plum Trees. The bushes on the left are covered in purple balloons for plums. The kids drew the color cards from the actual board game and moved the yellow 'game piece' on the colored spaces taped to the ground.


The first stop was 'Peppermint Forrest.' They played a bowling game with red/white striped pins and won a red/white striped chinese yo-yo and candy cane stickers. In the background, the snowflakes are part of Queen Frostine's area, which came later.


My dear friend Kate helped me by doing the lettering for Alli's birthday sign. I added colored cardstock and ribbon to finish the look. I love how this turned out! Thanks Kate!



This is the Lollipop Woods where they played a ring toss game to win lollipops. Yum!


There were other stations and activities that I don't have good pics of. We did a musical chairs-type game in Gumdrop Mountains, laced Fruit Loops on necklace when stopped at Lord Licorice, etc.

I loved the idea of my cake, but I ran out of time to do the finishing touches. I had candies to trim it with and a few other items, but just couldn't make it happen. But Allison thought it was great, and that's really all that matters!






Cousins Hannah & Gavin


Happy Birthday to my baby girl, who is growing up way too fast!!

July 4th Celebration!

After our week in Sequoia, we went back to Maggie's new house (in Visalia) for some R&R. We spent a week there, relaxing, swimming, lunching, going to the movies, BBQ-ing, manicures & pedicures, and just enjoying each others' company! We had a blast as usual.
I can't believe I only brought out my camera one of the days we were there. It was 4th of July. It's legal to do your own fireworks there so the guys headed over to the corner fireworks stand and bought the supply for our gang! I love that my kids get this opportunity to do sparklers and fountains like I did as a kid.

4th BBQ:


A little down time out of the sun:


Let the fireworks begin:









Maggie's new house:




The boys entertained us with more skits before the sun went down. This one here they copied from a skit done at camp. Between us Maggie & I have 7 boys, and they are hysterical together. They did a skit where they say "WE ARE MEN IN CAMP SHIRTS...." and then act out whatever comes next. Since the younger boys didn't have camp shirts, they changed it to "WE ARE MEN IN NO SHIRTS..... modeling!" So they chant together the first phrase and then pause and all of a sudden strike a pose. Maybe you had to be there, but we were laughing so hard!!




The ultimate slumber party in the loft:


Summer isn't summer without spending a week at the Schimelpfenings!! Thanks as always for a great time!!

p.s. - Our last night there, and intruder came in the house at 3:30a.m.!!! Maggie got up and saw lights on in the house, walked out of her room and saw him at the opposite end of her hallway. He turned and walked out into the garage and rode off down the street on her son's bicycle. CRAZY!! Luckily nothing more was taken and we were all safe, but it was pretty upsetting.

Sequoia

I'm a bit behind on my summer posts. We've been gone a lot and so busy when we've been in town! So I'm trying to catch up!
The week after Shaver Lake/Chawanakee, we headed over to Sequoia. We couldn't get Yosemite reservations this year, so Lodgepole in Sequoia is always our back up plan. We took my friend Maggie's boys Andrew and Jake with us. And the Farris family was there for the week as well, in the site next to us.


Holly: We brought our dog Holly on vacation with us. She sure loves to be with her family! We were a bit nervous about her traveling up the winding road to get to Sequoia so we gave her dramamine. It worked in that she didn't get sick, but the poor dog was a zombie the whole first day! Not sure if we'd do that again. At night we stuck all the boys in a tent since they had a couple extra friends along. Holly was in HEAVEN when we threw her in the tent too. She took turns sleeping on each boys sleeping bag and was loving life! And it made me feel at ease knowing that if a bear approached the tent, she would hopefully alert us!


Hume Lake: We spent one of the days at Hume Lake, about 30 min. from our camp ground. The weather was perfect! The kids played in the water, rafted, fished, etc. There was a GIANT log floating in the water that entertained everyone for quite a while. Darren caught a fish by pulling a hook around on a piece of fishing line. It was quite a surprise! Poor Ryan tried fishing for hours, only to come up empty handed!


Crystal Cave: We haven't been here in about 7 years I think. It's a bit of a hike down hill (and then back up again!!) to get to the caves so we've bypassed this activity our past few Sequoia trips. But we were with friends who hadn't been to the caves before so off we went. It wasn't as strenuous as my memory had recalled. Maybe it's because this time I wasn't trudging up and down this path of a million steps with twins who were only one and a half years old! They held their own this time and the hike was much more enjoyable! The caves are amazing and a site to see!



Moro Rock: We always climb to the top of Moro Rock. It's a pretty quick climb with an amazing view once you get to the top!



Our hike to the waterfall:
On our way we encountered a couple deer and to our surprise, a BEAR! We often see bears while camping, but I'm never totally comfortable with it! This bear was about 8 feet off our path, picking bugs out of a fallen log. We just kept walking (except for Jason who likes to push the boundaries and gets as close as possible with the camera) and he never looked our way. Whew!












Here's what Jason did to my car when he hit a rock while coming around a corner at the campground. He joked about being able to drive the gigantic motorhome all the way there, up the steep, twisty, windy turns, with no problems, and then gets in my van and 30 seconds later hits a rock! UGH!! Thanks to my Daddy for fixing it good as new!!


I love when everyone plays games together!


On the last night, the kids had glow sticks and ran around playing tag and other activities! Then then performed many skits for us grown-ups and we laughed and laughed! They made some up themselves, and some they recreated from what they had seen the week before at Scout Camp. It was quite entertaining!!